Edinburgh council workers on strike

By Makhno, submitted on Wed, 22/08/2007 - 10:44

Thousands of council workers in Edinburgh have been taking part in a one-day strike in protest at threatened cuts and redundancies. The strikers were supported by pupils, teachers and parents who are protesting the proposal to close 22 schools. Such closures and cut-backs are advocated despite the £60m recently found by the Council to fund the first stage of a new tram network.

Thousands of council workers in Edinburgh have been taking part in a one-day strike in protest at threatened cuts and redundancies. Employees with placards picketed the council chambers on the Royal Mile from 8.30 on Thursday, and the crowd booed council bosses as they went to meetings that were discussing the councils budget deficit and public funding cuts. The one day stike, called by Unison has shut down nurseries, schools and community centres all over the city. The strike action follows a ballot by Unison last week. A total of 1,601 workers voted in favour of the walkout, with 661 voting against, the union said. This strike coincides with protests against the proposed closure of 22 schools in Edinburgh, proposals that are sparking off a great deal of dissent among teachers, parents and student Mothers with their children affected by the announcement of school closures also supported a rally at the City Chambers. The crowd chanted "save our schools" in between speeches from union officials. The cut-backs are part of the Councils bid to save £10 million and the strike will coincide with a meeting where councillors are set to vote on measures to tackle the funding shortage. The council said the strike was disapointing but argued that it was essential to make cuts. Council chiefs are desperate to plug the £10m hole in the council budget. It is expected that officials will attempt to recoup that money from cutbacks across a range of services - including the schools and nursery closures announced today. Though redundancies have not been listed as a definite option, council officials have refused to rule them out. The proposed public sector spending cuts that are threatening jobs, pensions and our schools are surprising considering the £60 million pounds that the city council has made available for the building of a controvertial new tram network. The new trams will link the airport to new shopping centres at the ocean terminal, and will mainly benefit wealthy shoppers and tourists, rather than local people. The total cost of the tram network is estimated to cost £600 million.

Comments

Shame on LibCom entryists

By Anonymous, submitted on Wed, 22/08/2007 - 22:30

You know, I've got very close Ukranian relatives. As lot's of people in the east of Scotland do. Now I'm sorry your parasites have lost your the popular body that was the SSP. But don't try to reportray yourselves as anarchist or activist now your last 'host' is dead. Or if you do, Makhno, try to come up with a more tasteful name. And try to do better than pass off Edinburgh Evening News reports as anything but LibCom exploitation of genuine workers.

What are you on about?

By CH, submitted on Wed, 22/08/2007 - 22:58

What connection do the Ukraine, libcom.org and the SSP have with this article? (That's rhetorical, by the way.)

Re: Edinburgh council workers to strike

By Anonymous, submitted on Wed, 22/08/2007 - 23:36

"What connection do the Ukraine, libcom.org and the SSP have with this article?" Well here is the article as originally written up for the corpaorate press before being stolen LibCom. http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1303942007 And here is it stolen and uncredited by LibCom libcom.org/news/edinburgh-council-workers-strike-18082007 And Makhno is obviously a LibCom parasite trying to pose as an activists now his previous host body has died off. The real question is why IM are promoting the personal gain of local government officials who daily opporess us. Here is the answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entryism Like fleas off a dead dog these parasites are now trying to take control here. Some of them always have been here but IM has never been targetted before.

Right.

By CH, submitted on Thu, 23/08/2007 - 01:47

Clear as. Let me just make contact with the Central committee before replying fully...

Re: Edinburgh council workers to strike

By Makhno, submitted on Thu, 23/08/2007 - 12:25

This probably should have gone in 'other press' but i felt that activists in Edinburgh are very dissociated from workplace politics, and for that matter largely unaware of any local politics. There are a great deal of local political issues we could get involved in. a few examples: Edinburgh At Risk, a network of groups resisting the privatisation and gentrification of our city and its common good assets; The campaign against the closure of 22 schools; The dissatisfaction with the proposed tram system that will cost millions and benefit only the rich shoppers and tourists. The Shortage of social housing. A problem with Scot-IMC that it is mainly an activist message board dislocated from any local politics.

Re: Edinburgh council workers on strike

By Makhno, submitted on Thu, 23/08/2007 - 14:36

ok this is no longer a re-post from libcom ;) i have overhauled the whole thing to include some more info and interesting stuff.

Aha! Changing the article eh?

By CH, submitted on Thu, 23/08/2007 - 20:46

So you're not just an Entryist, you're a Reformist too! ;) Good work on the article.

Re: Edinburgh council workers on strike

By Anonymous, submitted on Sun, 26/08/2007 - 22:36

V good to see an article on this topic, as Makhno says there is a need for more coverage of this kind of struggle on imc scotland, currently there is not really any collective input into the site, it is basically down to what individuals post, so i suggest both more postings on local struggles, and if possible regular imc meetings to develop better coverage. On the specifics of the article, I agree with much of it, but disagree with outright condemnation of the new tram system. Major public transport developments are an esential part of combatting global warming and reclaiming our cities from the polluting and dangerous car. There are battles to be fought over the tram route - eg it should serve the Western General, and it is true that it is angled to serving the new private waterfront developments - but I think even here it is exaggerating to say it will not serve local people, I understand it is going up Leith Walk and passing through Greater Pilton. It is more to the point to condemn the high salaries and waste squandered on council bosses, not to mention the wasteful bureaucracy purely associated with money gathering, eg council tax. Also we need to look at this in the context of the use of society's resources in general, not just "council spending", in general human need is put a poor second to profit and power, this involves everything from the building of new nuclear submarines for Faslane to the building of expensive private housing, shops and hotels instead of social housing (as Makhno mentions) Would be good to see more coverage of the struggle against the cuts in edinburgh in indymedia, especially with contributions from council workers, school students and people in the communities directly affected. Plans are underway for a public meeting on this struggle next month, as part of the monthly Forum meetings, more info to follow... Mike, edinburgh

Re: Edinburgh council workers on strike

By Makhno, submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 28/08/2007 - 15:12

I hear what you are saying mike and I largely agree with you, but i think that the trams are the wrong way of addressing the needs of this city. I think that money spent on planning (£119 million so far) and implementing (a projected £600m) a new tram system is misplaced: i believe that it would be better spent on improving our already existing bus services. Such money might be more efficiently used to upgrade our buses and have them run off clean sources of energy. Another concern of mine is that the trams will be run by a private company that will be in competition with the publicly owned lothian buses, which i find to be run well and with cheap fares compared to other bus services. I also worry that the trams will assist in the further gentrification of areas such as leith and granton, by making those areas more attractive to business and the wealthy, and displacing local people, replacing it with sterile consumerist areas for the well off. I look forward to hearing about the Forum meeting!

Another point about the trams

By Anonymous, submitted on Thu, 30/08/2007 - 13:12

Is that the route to be used runs along / over parts of the current cycle route network, in preference to running it along the nearby road. Disrupting non-polluting traffic into the city seems perverse to me and I never got a satisfactory answer from TIE at their PR event a while back.

Private Finanace Initiative Bites?

By Anonymous, submitted on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 08:08

Is it a mere cooincedence that very soon after "Private Finance" is 'drafted' in to save our schools via the extortionate PFI build and maintain contracts that there seems to be a hole in the budget?

Re: Edinburgh council workers on strike

By Anonymous, submitted on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 22:52

Yes, Mahkno, trams are for the rich, who i've heard are already ditching their 4x4s for it. And quite right about the tourists too. How dare they come here. Some of them might even be foreign...